Shoeless Katherine, Redux

Spelling Bee Blunder. The Democratic challenger to Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio) was quick to jump all over a new Pryce TV ad in which her campaign — drum roll, please — misspelled Pryce’s name.

The campaign of Mary Jo Kilroy gleefully sent out a press release, complete with a frame-grab photo of the ad showing a smiling Pryce with a “U.S. Congress” logo. And underneath, in uppercase letters, her name: “DEBOARAH PRYCE” with an extra “a.”

The ad was Pryce’s first TV ad of the campaign season in her tougher-than-expected re-election bid.

“Deborah Pryce and her campaign are so ‘wildly’ out of touch, they don’t even know who they are anymore, or even how to spell the candidate’s name,” said Scott Kozar, campaign manager for Kilroy. “Just so we are clear, as any true Buckeye knows, Ohio is spelled O-H-I-O.”

A spokesman for Pryce’s campaign, John DeStefano, laughed off the mistake, sending an e-mail saying, “We all knew Mary Jo Kilroy was a tax raising ulta [sic] liberal, but who would have guessed she was ortographobic as well?”

Since he sent the e-mail from his BlackBerry, we’re not going to hold that typo against him! And although we had never heard of the word “ortographobic” and could not find it in the dictionary, we knew what he meant: Kilroy has a fear of spelling!

Wynn-Win Situation. Rep. Albert Wynn (D-Md.) lured 1,000 supporters to a fundraiser at the gilded new Camelot of Upper Marlboro catering facility in Maryland on Friday — just across the street from the Six Flags amusement park — with the promise of a keynote address from former Virginia Gov. Doug Wilder (D).

But Wilder couldn’t make it. As the mayor of Richmond, he had to monitor ongoing budget negotiations in the state House. So Wynn, rather sheepishly, offered up a substitute.

Noting the supporters of Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley in the room — O’Malley being one of two major candidates seeking the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in Maryland — Wynn confessed to being in “a little bit of an awkward situation ... this gets a little touchy.”